The Origin of Teaching As a Profession in Japan: a Transnational Analysis of the Relationship Between Professionalism and Nationalism in the 19Th Century

Cómo referenciar este artículo / How to reference this article Sakuma, A. (2018). The origin of teaching as a profession in Japan: A transnational analysis of the relationship between professionalism and nationalism in the 19th century. Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, 5(2), pp. 35-54. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14516/ete.232

The origin of teaching as a profession in Japan: A transnational analysis of the relationship between professionalism and nationalism in the 19th century

Aki Sakuma e-mail: [email protected] Keio University, Tokyo. Japan

Abstract: How was the concept of «teaching as a profession»1 advocated in the 19th century? In this study, this question is analysed by focusing on how the Japanese version of the concept was imported from the West and subsequently transformed in this non-Christian setting. It was formulated not only by a national action to create a strong centralized nation-state in Asia, but also through the transnational interaction of European, American, and Japanese educational leaders. First, the author argues that, the early Japanese concept of «teaching as a profession» is explored by examining the ideas of Mori Arinori, the first Minister of Education. Mori claimed that, in order to safeguard children’s morality, teaching should be a holy-calling profession in Japan. For him, this meant educating the subsequent generations to be obedient to their holy nation. Second, Mori’s images of education are shown to be consistent with those in the United States, where he had studied as a diplomat. These images were shared not only by US leaders such as Horace Mann, but also with Prussian and French leaders of the era. In both countries, both the holy-calling theory and the profession theory included nationalism, whose ultimate aim was education for the nation. However, while the sacredness of the republican polity was based on the ideals of individualism and liberty in the United States, the sacredness of the imperial polity in Japan was promoted by the Emperor the apotheosis of the imperial line, unbroken for ages eternal. These historical origins of the concept of teaching suggest why the professionalisation of teaching in Japan has been advanced by forces that hoist the flag of national particularism, and by a government that supports this view. This implies that teaching professionalism does not always connote democracy or the human rights of children/teachers. Keywords: teaching in Japan; teaching profession; professionalisation of teaching; Mori Arinori; 19th century: teaching in America.

1 In this article, «teaching» is defined as an occupation of a teacher.« Teacher» is defined as a person who undertakes duties in an educational programme in a school at the elementary/secondary level, with a certification or formal credentials. «Profession» is operationally defined here as a vocation requiring mastery of a complex set of knowledge and skills through long-term preparation.

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Received: 16/12/2017 Accepted: 29/03/2018

1. Introduction

This essay clarifies how the concept of «teaching as a profession» emerged in 19th century Japan. The concept of teaching in America, which had been established in the first half of the 19th century under Prussian influence, was introduced into Japan by Mori Arinori, the first Minister of Education, in the latter half of the19th century; however, it was transfigured for the Japanese context. In the 20th century, this Prussian-influenced concept in turn exerted an effect on other East Asian countries such as South Korea. The originality of this article lies in its adoption of a transnational perspective in the course of analysis. Starting from 2000, research from a transnational viewpoint, which attempts to relativize the framework of historical accounts by country, has advanced in the field of research into the history of teaching, and new findings have since been achieved (Hargreaves, 2000; Clavin, 2005; Popkewitz, 2013). However, the history of the concept of teaching has heretofore been investigated on a country- by-country basis, and as yet, there are few comparative studies that include Asia in the framework. The aim of this study is, therefore, to contribute an understanding from a transnational perspective of how the concept of teaching as a profession, which is a self-evident concept in the 21st century, was formed in the 19th century. It also aims to gain an understanding of the historical reasons as to why the social status of teaching in Japan and South Korea today is higher than that in the United States. This study will also allow the conflicting interpretations surrounding Mori Arinori’s concept of education to be overcome by means of transnational analysis. As argued in previous Japanese research, «There are few individuals about whom assessments are more divided than Mori» (Terasaki, 1973, p. 17), and it has not yet been explained satisfactorily from the available Japanese historical materials why Mori advocated women’s aptitude for teaching. In this article, the features of Mori’s concept of teaching are first analyzed. I then describe the US concept of teaching in the 19th century and clarify that Mori, who studied in America, converted the concept of teaching as a profession into that of teachers as holy nation builders who should subjectively obey their Emperor. Finally, I show that the concept of teaching as a profession does not always connote democracy, which helps to understand why current teacher education reforms in Japan have been promoted by the government, requiring teachers to be obedient to their nation, rather than to their children.

2. Mori Arinori’s Concept of Teaching

Modern teacher training began in Japan in 1872, and its basic system was then established by Shihan-gakko Rei (the Teacher Preparation School Order) in 1886. This law was issued by Mori Arinori, who had assumed office as the first Minister of Education in the first Cabinet of Ito Hirobumi in 1885.

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Mori Arinori was born into a samurai family of middling status of the Satsuma clan in Kyushu in 1847. At that time, it was forbidden to travel abroad due to the restrictions of the Tokugawa shogunate. However, in 1865, the Satsuma clan, which was the central force aiming to overthrow the shogunate, concluded an accord with England and secretly sent a group of 15 samurai, including Mori, to England as Japanese students studying abroad. Although Mori had been instructed to study marine surveying, the plan was changed so that he could study «the modern concepts of the foundation of states» under Professor Alexander Williamson at the University of London. He studied widely in the areas of physics, mathematics, history, philosophy, and so on. In addition, he conducted an inspection tour of the cultures of various places by traveling in Europe and Russia. In 1867, under the guidance of the British diplomat Laurence Oliphant, Mori was influenced by Thomas Lake Harris, an American preacher who criticized the prevailing Western society and government. In 1867, Mori moved to Harris’s colony in New York State with his Satsuma friends and Harris, and devoted himself to Harris’s spiritualism, establishing a flour mill, a vineyard, and so on as a communal enterprise. Upon being notified of the Meiji Restoration, Mori returned to Japan in 1868. However, he returned to America once more when, in 1870, he was posted in Washington as the first diplomat of the new Japanese government. During Mori’s second sojourn in the United States, he built a wide network of personal relationships with many intellectuals and obtained a wealth of information about the current situations in politics, economics, and culture. After returning to Japan in 1873, he again spent time in both China and England as an envoy, after which he devoted his efforts to the modernization of Japan’s education system as the first Minister of Education from 1885. But how did Mori view the teaching profession and what kind of teachers did he seek to train when he created the first teacher preparation system in Japan? The characteristics of Mori’s concept of teaching can be analyzed from the five perspectives of mission, social status, quality, preparation, and gender distribution.

2.1. Teachers as nation builders

The first characteristic of Mori’s concept of teaching was the positioning of teachers as the bearers of education, in the context of education as a national project. This is described as follows in «Essentials of the government educational administration» (Mori, 1885, p. 167), a work that Mori revised repeatedly before offering it as a concrete plan for education.

Article 1 Principle: The education system takes national education as its core, and the administration thereof should be based on the principles of the national economy. Article 3 Education: Elementary education should train children to do their duty as national subjects, to perform moral acts, and to promote their own welfare.

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For this training, the first priority is to prepare qualified teachers andto fill positions in each elementary school without any absence. This enterprise should be borne by each prefecture under the control of the government.

Mori held that «the thing that serves as the main focus of education is, in other words, the strengthening of a country’s independence», and for Mori, it was education that solidified the nation’s standing as an independent country. In addition, it was teachers who were to be charged with this national duty. Moreover, «the purpose of educational administration» was «for the nation», which was described as follows in the «Draft Cabinet Proposal» of 1887 (p. 157), a proposal to which Mori gave careful consideration.

Looking back on our country’s [history of] ten-thousand generations and one royal house, limitless as Heaven and Earth, resplendent with martial dignity since antiquity, we have not once been humiliated at the hands of a foreign country. Thus, the people’s spirit of defending their country and the customs of loyalty, bravery, reverence, and obedience have not fallen by the wayside, but have been polished and cultivated since the days of the imperial ancestors. This means that refining popular character and achieving a [high] educational standard is unrivalled as a resource and the greatest treasure trove for establishing national wealth and power, and we should not look elsewhere.

In the context of the international situation at that time, Mori believed that the role of the Imperial System, with its long history, could not be ignored if Japan were to avoid being colonized and establish a modern state system. However, Mori, who had learned a great deal from Western intellectuals as a diplomat, also understood very well that the long-standing traditional culture of Japan related to the Imperial System (e.g. the concubine system) was regarded as unequal from the standpoint of the modern values in western cultures. Therefore, although Mori extolled nationalism, he was vehemently opposed to the brand of nationalism extolled by people like Motoda Nagazane, who viewed the Emperor as the nucleus of morality and sought governance based on the teachings of Confucianism. In this regard, Hasegawa Sei’ichi pointed out that Mori «should be called a nationalist in the sense that he wanted to create subjective citizens in Japan, rather than a nationalist in the sense of someone who emphasized state power under rule by the Emperor» (Hasegawa, 2007, p. 330).

2.2. Teachers as holy priests

The second feature is the concept of teachers as «slaves to education» and «priests of education». Mori preached to teachers that they should have «the resolve to lay down their lives for education» and strongly sought devotion to education and self-sacrifice from teachers. In this regard, he said the following:

The normal-school graduates who are now becoming teachers must be excellent in both character and academic ability as they shoulder the heaviest

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of responsibilities and must slavishly devote themselves to teaching for the remainder of their lives (Mori, 1887, p. 453). Those employed as teachers have to know that Japan remains in a perilous state and must be ready to give their lives for the sake of education. In the past, a teacher’s task was to teach a bit of reading, writing, and arithmetic, but the teacher of the future should be a priest of education, who is dedicated to teaching with heart and soul (Mori, 1887, p. 450).

Mori’s concept of teachers as «priests of education» has been dubbed one of the prototypes of the concept of education in contemporary Japan (Fujimoto, 2001, p. 177). A recent survey conducted by Yoshiyuki Kudomi (Kudomi, 2008, pp. 171- 173) shows that many people regard education as a holy profession and therefore believe that teachers should be willing to sacrifice and devote themselves to their jobs rather than claiming their rights as citizens.

2.3. Teachers as obedient subjects

The third characteristic is the disposition with which normal school pupils and school instructors should be equipped, the establishment of the so-called «three dispositions». Article 1 of the 1886 Shihan-gakko Rei, which was issued under Mori’s educational administration, stipulated that «normal schools will be the place for training those who will become teachers, and attention ought to be paid to ensuring that the students are those possessing a good and obedient, faithful, and dignified character». Regarding the modifiers jyunryo (good and obedient), shin-ai (faithful), and ijyu (dignified), it is well known that the expressions originally presented by Mori, i.e., jyu-jyun (obedient), yujyo (friendship), and igi (respectability) (Mori, 188-, rep. 1997, p. 343), were modified into Confucian wording by Motoda Nagazane. Mori had himself expounded the meaning of these terms, explaining that jyu- jyun (obedient) meant obedience to the orders of the Ministry of Education and the principal; yujyo (friendship) meant jointly performing one’s duties amidst one’s relationships with superiors and inferiors; and igi (respectability) meant treating pupils with respect. These features are widely known in Japan as the so-called «three dispositions» or «three virtues». In order to nurture these «three dispositions», Mori emphasized that prospective teachers should be housed in dormitories with a soldier appointed as head of the dormitory, and that pupils should undertake «military-style physical training» (Tomoo, 2003).

2.4. Teachers as moral models

The fourth characteristic is the emphasis on moral rather than intellectual excellence. Mori demanded from teachers that they be superior in virtue and «serve as models for others in both words and deeds».

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Education does not mean attainments like reading, writing, and arithmetic, but is the moral duty to cultivate true character. If so, education for the nation signifies the cultivation of children to become national subjects.

For Mori, teaching was not just the transmission of knowledge and skills, but involved «kunto», the disciplining of persons with reference to various virtues, just as pottery is improved by being made from good clay with an added aroma. He also believed that «instructors must devote themselves to the weighty task of disciplining teacher and student instead of father and brother, and applying and nurturing full education» (Mori, 188-, repr. 1997, p. 452).

2.5. Elementary teachers as mothers

The fifth characteristic preached by Mori was the aptitude of women for teaching, although he limited this to elementary education.

When I think about it, male teachers do not compare with female teachers when it comes to kindness and attentiveness. It is already common knowledge in the West that women are far superior to men with regard to children’s education. I would like to employ women as much as possible in regular elementary school. I do not mean that female teachers should be given the responsibility for young students because they lack academic ability. Teaching children is very difficult and very important, and I want to entrust female teachers with this because it especially suits the strong points of women (Mori, 188-, repr. 1997, p. 365).

In other words, since the fact that women were more suitable for teaching young children was «already the established theory in Europe and America», Mori stated that he wanted «to employ women to the greatest extent possible», and he sought for women to be actively hired and trained as teachers in elementary education. Mori believed this was desirable as women were «natural teachers» due to their role in giving birth and child rearing.

Unlike men, women naturally become teachers once they give birth to children, so that all education in the family is handled by one affectionate mother. A natural-born teacher who has acquired the appropriate qualification can only mean a complete victory for education (Mori, 188-, repr. 1997, p. 454).

However, as noted below, Mori not only emphasized «tender mothers» as simply the «sex that gave birth» and took charge of «education of the family», he also advocated their role of fostering acceptance amongst parents that their children would enter the military, fight bravely, and die in war.

The training of female teachers should not focus simply on elegance, but also needs to instill concern for the nation. I will illustrate the spirit of female teacher training for the nation with an example. It would be good to hang 7–8 pictures in the classroom, depicting scenes such as a mother rearing an orphan,

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a mother teaching a child, a mother sending off her adult son to join the army, a son fighting valiantly as he faces national crisis, or a mother hearing of her son’s death in battle (Mori, 188-, repr. 1997, p. 461-462).

In prior research in Japan, Mori’s advocacy of women’s aptitude for teaching has been explained as a consequence of his learning in Western Europe that education was also necessary for women; this prompted him to foster women’s education in Japan (Terasaki, 1973; Hasegawa, 2007). However, while Mori argued that women had an aptitude for teaching young boys, he did not argue that female teachers were required for education targeting young girls. In other words, the question of why Mori preached women’s aptitude for teaching has not yet been clarified.

3. Teaching theory in 19th-century America

However, if the question is analyzed from a transnational standpoint, as can be seen from the above-mentioned five characteristics, what Mori Arinori sought from teaching was consistent with the concept of teaching in the United States during Mori’s time studying there as a diplomat. Thus, it is clear that Mori fully accepted the concept of teaching espoused in the United States in the 19th century. During his three-year stay in America from 1870 to 1873, Mori wrote three books in English, in all of which he cited the thought of Horace Mann, the Whig politician, educational reformer, and first Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education, calling him «one of the most distinguished American characters and a most eminent writer on education» (Mori, 188-, repr. 1997, p. 75). As Mann died in 1859, Mori never met him in person; however, the experts from whom Mori sought opinions about the construction of an education system in Japan, beginning with Mori’s friend Birdsey Northrup, had been influenced by Mann’s ideas on education. The features of the concept of education in America from the 1860s to 1870s, when Mori was studying there, are summarized below.

3.1. The basis of teaching theory in the United States – Protestant ideology

In the United States, after achieving independence as a republican nation in the latter half of the 18th century, the principles of political democratization and economic industrialization, as well as of national integration in the construction of a modern nation, were sought based on Protestantism. The historian Kaestle has called the social creed of white Protestants in the antebellum period the «Protestant ideology», and the characteristic social creed of this ideology, which is composed of republicanism, Protestantism, and capitalism, can be summarized by the following 10 items.

The sacredness and fragility of the republican polity (including ideas about individualism, liberty, and virtue); the importance of individual character in fostering social morality; the central role of personal industry in defining rectitude and merit; the delineation of a highly respected but limited domestic role for women; the importance for character building of familial and social environment

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(within certain racial and ethnic limitations); the sanctity and social virtues of property; the equality and abundance of economic opportunity in the United States; the superiority of American protestant culture; the grandeur of America’s destiny; and the necessity of a determined public effort to unify America’s polyglot population, chiefly through education (1983, p. 76).

The theological thought that supported this American Protestantism was the «Unitarianism» represented by the Congregational pastor William E. Channing, while the Protestant ideology referred to by Kaestle fused «Evangelicalism» with the former (Tanaka, 2005, p. 175). That is, the Calvinism that had existed prior to that had held that God was the absolute ruler with supremacy, and salvation could not be achieved by human beings on their own; Unitarianism, on the other hand, preached that human beings could achieve salvation themselves through human will and effort, such as virtuous good deeds. Due to the rationality and rationalization of theological thought espoused by Unitarianism, educational theory that improved the moral character of human beings became important. Moreover, Protestantism was an ideology that was inseparable from new general norms related to masculinity and femininity (see Coontz, 2005). In other words, as the accumulation of wealth itself was recognized as a virtuous deed on the economic front and capitalism was pursued, the principle of competition and egoism accelerated, and in addition, the spirit of competition and of independence to rise in the world was ultimately adopted as the norm of masculinity. On the other hand, the recognition that economic activities for personal profit were also accompanied by decadence, due to wealth and temptation by evil, also spread. It was women who were expected to prevent the danger of a collapse of the public good incurred by the economic activities of men and the possession of wealth. Women were thought to lead lives that were full of love and to be outstanding in terms of virtue, while it was believed that the danger of a collapse of the public good that could well be incurred by capitalism could be warded off by women sacrificing themselves to undertake community service activities and providing moral education to male children. Historian Linda K. Kerber (1980) famously named this new image of woman the «Republican mother» and analyzed it as such (Kerber, 1980, pp. 199-200, 235). Therefore, while theologians like Channing preached that women should be submissive to their husbands, they also regarded women’s lives as morally superior to those of men and urged that women’s moral influence be exerted socially. Furthermore, women did not deny the female stereotype that they were pious and submissive, as well as excelling morally in the home; instead, they used this norm to engage in activities for social and moral reform centered around the church. For example, women launched an educational reform movement, the temperance movement, prison reform, and the movement to abolish slavery. Finally, they also engaged in movements to expand educational opportunities for women (Evans, 1989, pp. 70–81). Owing to this, white middle class women had played important roles in the educational movement in the first half of the 19th century, and in particular, in the common school movement in which teaching theory was debated.

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3.2. Five features of the concept of teaching

From the 1830s on, a public education system had been constructed based on this Protestant ideology in the United States; but at this time, how specifically was teaching conceived of as a profession? The answer to this question can be summarized by the following five characteristics.

3.2.1. Teachers as republican mothers

First, America was held to be a special country that was loved by God, and the embodiment of God’s will should be undertaken through education. It was further believed that education, which bore the burden of the means to national integration, was important work. In the United States, in the first half of the 19th century, the question of what kind of profession teaching was had been debated amidst the educational movement; this movement aimed at establishing and spreading common schools in the United States and the teacher training facilities necessary to institute them. In the above- described Protestantism, the issue of gender was also an extremely important issue for teaching theory. In reality, those who strongly advocated the approach of teaching based on patriotism were female educators who wanted to expand the educational opportunities for women by that means. For example, in her petition to the state government for public financial assistance for a school for girls she had founded in Middlebury, Vermont in 1814, Emma Hart Willard repudiated the circumstances up to that time, whereby teaching was nothing more than a temporary job. She also asserted that teachers should have «a sense of mission» and devote themselves to «the republic loved by God» «at the risk of their lives» (Sakuma, 2000).

In calling on my patriotic countrymen, to effect so noble an object, the consideration of national glory, should not be overlooked. […] And who knows how great and good a race of men, may yet arise from the forming hand of mothers, enlightened by the county of that beloved country, – to defend her liberties, – to plan her future improvement, – and to raise her to unparalleled glory? (Willard, 1819, pp. 36-37).

In the concept of teaching espoused above, improvement of home education and school education comprised a form of devotion to the country, and precisely for this reason, teaching was suited to women; this served as the basis for the change in the image of women that began with the Second Great Awakening, as noted above (Evans, 1989, pp. 70-81).

3.2.2. Teachers as holy missionaries: devotion and self-sacrifice

The recognition that teaching was a nationalistic activity was inseparable from the recognition that America was a special country loved by God, and that devotion

Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, v. 5, n. 2, Julio-Diciembre / July-December 2018, pp. 35-54. 43 e-ISSN: 1698-7802 Aki Sakuma to it thus comprised devotion to God. As such, teaching was a holy mission granted by God. The word «profession», which is discussed below, included, at that time, the meaning of the original «clergymen» such as pastors and theology teachers. In reality, the majority of intellectuals who debated education taught at higher education institutions like colleges, academies, and seminaries, and those who participated in the boards of education were themselves pastors or theology teachers. The view of education premised on devotion to God was integrated with a view of education in which teachers did not seek economic compensation but instead accepted honest poverty. Mann strongly refuted that teachers, including men, should take up teaching posts for economic purposes, describing the situation as follows:

Essential requisites in a teacher’s character are, a love of children, and a love of his work. He must not be a hireling. It is right that he should have a regard for his compensation; but, his compensation being provided for, it should be forgotten (Massachusetts Board of Education, 1846, p. 83).

Regarding the notion that teachers should not take teaching jobs based on economic motives, most female educators actively agreed. Mary Lyon, the founder of the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, held that teaching was unsuited to both men, who had «economic ambitions», and married women, who had «obligations of the home». Thus, she argued that it was precisely unmarried women who were best suited to teaching, as they had the necessary «disinterested benevolence» and could «sacrifice themselves» for the «public good» «beyond their own homes». For that reason, she strictly cautioned against teachers expecting economic compensation (Lyon, 1837, p. 7). In fact, the Female Seminary sent forth many of its graduates to the Western frontier areas and schools in non-Christian regions overseas as teachers cum missionaries. A total of 53 female teachers were also dispatched from Mount Holyoke to posts in Japan, from 1847 to 1924, and they cleared a path for Christian education there (Mount Holyoke College, no date). The remarks of the female leader were greeted and used by the state board of education, which wanted to respond to the increase in demand for teachers in a situation of limited tax sources. Mann, whose aim was to spread public schools, was at first passive in relation to the hiring of female teachers, but as a means to persuade the opposition forces, who feared an increase in education tax, the low wage labor power of women proved an important resource (Tyler Peabody Mann, 1937, p. 424). Mann redoubled his efforts to persuade the boards of education in each area, arguing that if female teachers were hired, «the schools can be maintained peacefully at two-thirds the wages of male teachers» (Massachusetts Board of Education, Fourth Annual Report, pp. 45-46), and that «the difference in state expenditures will be $11,580.41 per year, or approximately twice the annual expenditures of three state normal schools» (Massachusetts Board of Education, Eleventh Annual Report, p. 26). Mann thus promoted the hiring of female teachers. Henry Barnard also made efforts to persuade the boards of education that were reluctant to hire female teachers, arguing that «there is no alternative route but to hire

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3.2.3. Teachers as living lesson to their pupils

Based on the recognition that teaching was a God-given vocation, it was believed that teachers should exhibit an exemplary figure like clergymen. Horace Mann had stated that teachers should «be a living lesson to their pupils», and should «inculcate a sense of morality» by their own existence (Massachusetts Board of Education, 1841, p. 63). The advantage of female teachers was not only moral excellence; their repudiation of physical punishment must also be confirmed as an advantage. Mann had repeatedly advocated that «men administer schools by authority and physical force, but women can do the same thing by the dignity of character and love» (Massachusetts Board of Education, Tenth Annual Report, p. 70). The hiring of female teachers also held significance in redressing the pattern of physical punishment by teachers, which had become a problem in Massachusetts at that time. In the Protestant ideology, the emphasis was placed not on making children obey by brute strength and physical punishment, but rather by inculcating moral norms in children through morality and affection, and educating them to follow the voice of God within (Kaestle, 1983, pp. 95-103).

3.2.4. Teachers as moral guardians

Fourth, as the figure that should be exhibited by a teacher, a disposition of «courteousness, orderliness, tolerance, righteousness and affection» was enumerated, while obedience to God was also emphasized. During the establishment of normal schools, Horace Mann described in the following terms the disposition that was sought from teachers.

Is not the importance immeasurably augmented of employing teachers, who will, themselves, be a living lesson to their pupils, of decorous behavior, of order, of magnanimity, of justice, of affection; and who, if they do not directly teach the principles, will still, by their example, transfuse and instill something of the sentiment of virtue? (Massachusetts Board of Education, 1838, p. 63).

Mann further held that many of «the teachers who are now working in the common schools of this state» lack awareness that teaching «performs its duties obediently by itself» and argued for the need to establish a training institution.

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To the great majority of them all, however, I concede, because I sincerely believe it is their due, higher motives of action, than those which govern men in the ordinary callings of life; yet still, are they not, inevitably, too inexperienced, to understand and to act upon, the idea, that the great secret of ensuring a voluntary obedience to duty consists in a skillful preparation of motives beforehand? (Massachusetts Board of Education, 1838, p. 63).

However, the «voluntary obedience to duty» here cited by Mann meant obeying «God’s voice», and moreover, obeying it not reluctantly, but rather based on one’s own will. This emphasis on «obedience» was shared by J. H. Pestalozzi (1746-1827), whose work Mann had consulted. According to K. Yamaguchi, obedience (Gehorsam) formed the basis of Pestalozzi’s educational thought along with «love», «trust» and «gratitude», and was clearly distinguished from subordination (Unterwerfung), whereby «the ego is suppressed» and becomes «servile». «Obedience» for Pestalozzi was born from the relationship between infant and mother, and was a relationship of «natural necessity» for human beings, which meant obeying God’s teachings through the relationship between mother and God; that is, a relationship that is tied by religious faith (Yamaguchi, 2014).

3.2.5. Teachers as professionals

Fifth, teaching is a special «profession» that is granted by God, and owing to this, it is recognized as a profession for which special preparatory education is required. In the United States in the 18th century, elementary-level schools were often closed during the busy season for farming, and teaching was generally recognized as a temporary or spare time job for men (Sedlak, 1989, p. 259). However, English translations of the Prussia Report were made by the Congregational pastor William Channing Woodbridge, while Victor Cousin, a French pastor and professor of philosophy at the University of Paris, provided information about teacher training institutions in Prussia (Woodbridge, 1829; Dwight, 1829; Cousin, 1834). As a result, recognition grew that teaching differed from other ordinary professions and that it was a special profession requiring preparatory education (Sakuma, 2000). For example, the educator James Carter, who ran a private school after graduating from Harvard College, discussed the subject as follows:

They are often very young, they are constantly changing their employment, and consequently can have but little experience; and what is worse than all, they never have any direct preparation for their profession (Carter, 1826, p. 36).

Carter further argued that the duties of teaching were not to manage and maintain the order of the school (school keeping), but rather engaging in communication with children, which he called the «profession of teaching» (Carter, 1826, pp. 44-45). However, in the United States, although professionalization of teaching had been advocated in principle, in reality, almost no policies were created to increase the political, economic, and social status of teaching, and in reality, inexpensive female labor was used. At that time, Mann’s perspective was that if the quality of

Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, v. 5, n. 2, Julio-Diciembre / July-December 2018, pp. 35-54. 46 e-ISSN: 1698-7802 The origin of teaching as a profession in Japan: A transnational analysis of the relationship between professionalism and... teacher preparation and the «disposition» of teachers were first improved, the status of teaching would rise in both instances, and the competent males who should have been hired in the first place would want to teach and would be hired as teachers.

The profession of school-keeping, then as a profession, has never had an equal chance with its competitors. […] But it is almost too obvious to need mentioning, that if the qualifications of teachers were to be so greatly enhanced, and the term of the schools so materially lengthened, as is proposed, teaching would then really become a profession, and the same teachers would keep school through the year (Massachusetts Board of Education, 1848, p. 99).

4. Reception in Japan of the Image of Teachers Rooted in Protestantism

Let us once again summarize Mori Arinori’s concept of teaching in Japan in the early Meiji period, and enumerate its differences and similarities with the concept of teaching in the United States of the 1870s, where Mori had studied.

4.1. Points in common

In terms of points in common, all five views of teaching in the United States more or less overlapped with Mori’s views of education, as examined in the first part of this article. In other words, this can be interpreted as Mori having accurately understood the five views of teaching in the United States, namely 1) teaching as the foundation of the state, 2) teaching as the guardian of morality, 3) teaching as a holy profession in which a teacher sacrifices himself and devotes himself to his nation, 4) teaching as an ethical existence wherein the teacher shows by his own example a figure obeying God of his own free will, and 5) teaching as a profession that requires special preparatory education. He also tried to introduce fully into Japan the concepts of teaching = holy profession = female mission. One can conclude that Mori advocated women’s aptitude for teaching not simply to promote female education, but also because the concept of teaching that Mori had studied and had tried to introduce into Japan was, from the very outset, a concept that could not be established without the image of women who were morally superior. From the above analysis, it can be shown that the two concepts of teaching as profession and teaching as holy missionary were intertwined, while they have been distinguished from each other in contemporary Japan. When Mori accepted the concept of teaching of Western Europe, he substituted imperialism for republicanism and the nation for God; in so doing, he further strengthened the aspect of nationalism that the theory of teacher as profession in the West had originally connoted. However, what should be mentioned here is that the US system was not the sole influence on Mori. «Knowledge for Elementary School Teachers», published by Noguchi Yasuoki in 1885, was a translation of a work by Theodore-Henri Barrau (Barrau, 1879). Barrau described the obligations of normal students during their time at school as «obeying the rules, trusting the principal, and being kind

Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, v. 5, n. 2, Julio-Diciembre / July-December 2018, pp. 35-54. 47 e-ISSN: 1698-7802 Aki Sakuma to graduates of the same school», and argued that «teachers are unlike ordinary persons, and their lives are like recluses even among the public» (Barrau, 1879). The French philosopher Antoine de Nicolas Condorcet, who had a strong influence on Mori, shared Barrau’s thinking about teachers (Quartararo, 1995). Moreover, Horace Mann, whose works Mori had studied, had been influenced by the ideas of Pestalozzi as noted above. The concept of teaching in the United States, to which Mori made reference, was not original to the United States and was shared with the various European countries.

4.2. Differences

4.2.1. God or nation?

However, Mori’s ideas did not parallel the US concept in every respect. Mori substituted the «nation» for the Christian «God», who lay at the core of the concept of teaching in Western countries, and who had been taken as the object of devotion of missionary teachers. This difference appears clearly in the personnel and curriculum of the teacher preparation institutions. In the United States in the first half of the 19th century, most directors and principals of both female seminaries and state normal schools were pastors; moreover, until the end of the 19th century, the curriculums of these schools began and ended with a prayer. As symbolized by the fact that Mary Lyon designed the dormitory life of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary around that of a convent, the curriculum expressed prayer and devotion to «God». However, in Japan, Mori ordered that soldiers be appointed heads of dormitories at normal schools, and introduced military-style physical training into the curriculum. He carefully excluded prayer to «God» from the normal schools under the pretext of religious neutrality. Instead, he attempted to nurture a spirit with which teachers were bound by a trust relationship to the «nation» through military-style discipline. He wanted them to devote themselves to the «nation» of their own accord. Mori’s substitution of the «nation» for «God», which had been regarded as the object of teachers’ devotion in the United States, also caused another significant difference. While the authority of teachers as sacred missionaries derived from God in the United States, the authority of teachers as sacred missionaries in Japan was ultimately a position that derived from the nation. As noted above, Mori’s own nationalist views themselves differed from the nationalism of his opposing parties in the government, such as N. Motoda2. Mori was assassinated in 1889 by the nationalist B. Nishino who claimed Mori had not respected the Emperor enough. In that same year, the Meiji Constitution was promulgated by Mori’s counter parties, with the Emperor deified in Article 3 thereof. Owing to this, the authority of nation = Emperor = God continued as the source of authority for teaching (Mori, 188-, repr. 1997). In

2 Motoda Nagasane (1818-1891) was a tutor on Chinese classics to the Meiji Emperor. He had criticized westernization as a crisis in the tradition of the Imperial House, and viewed the Emperor as the nucleus of morality and governance. He made a determined effort to block Mori’s appointment as the first education minister. After Mori’s death, he played a significant role in drafting the Imperial Rescript on Education, promulgated in 1890.

Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, v. 5, n. 2, Julio-Diciembre / July-December 2018, pp. 35-54. 48 e-ISSN: 1698-7802 The origin of teaching as a profession in Japan: A transnational analysis of the relationship between professionalism and... addition, the end result was that this concept of teaching was transmitted to the various countries under Japanese rule, and the Korean Peninsula in particular, due to Japan’s outward expansion from the end of the 19th century. On the other hand, in the United States, the concept of teaching authority as God’s authority clearly receded to the background amidst the growth of a rational attitude towards religion. The process of urbanization and industrialization advanced rapidly from the end of the 19th century, as symbolized by the disappearance of the frontier in 1890 (Bellah, 1998). This suggests that the low level of social standing and teaching authority in the United States today may be related to this historical development.

4.2.2. Men’s job or women’s job?

The second point of difference is that Mori limited the feminization of teaching to elementary education, and this limitation continues to exert an effect on present- day Japan. Even today in Japan, men account for 35% of elementary, 60% of lower secondary, and 80% of higher secondary education teachers, the highest levels of all OECD participating countries (See graph 01). Mori continuously praised women’s education, describing women as natural- born teachers at a time when the role of women in society was strictly limited. The division of labor by gender role was shown in the gender gap in school attendance at the primary level. The female attendance rate was 15% in 1873 and 31% in 1890, while the male attendance rate was 40% and 65% respectively (Japanese National Commission for UNESCO, 1960, pp. 32-35, 60-62). In this era, Mori preferred to have the Ordinary Primary Schools [Jinjo-Shogakko] staffed wherever possible by women rather than with men. In order to make this happen, he promoted the female teachers’ preparation that had begun at Tokyo Women’s Normal School [Tokyo Joshi Shihan Gakko] in 1875 under the guidance of David R. Murray. Murray was one of the contributors to Mori’s book Education in Japan and was appointed by the Japanese government as the Superintendent of Education. However, Mori was familiar with the fact in the United States that teaching had not become a permanent business, owing to the feminization of teaching. He felt that «teachers in the common schools are not what they should be», but he evaluated that the labor power of women could be used at half the cost of male labor. Therefore, in his book Life and Resources in America, Mori argued that the Japanese government should make teaching a permanent business in which men who wanted to teach could continue to work for their entire lives. Mori further thought that the government should arrange things so that a suitable marriage, through teaching, was provided to those women who excelled in teaching the young, but only at the elementary level (1871, pp. 242-243). For Mori, it was education that solidified the nation’s standing as an independent country, and teachers should be the ones to discharge this national duty that merited the use of men as national servants. In other words, teaching was established by default as a man’s job from the beginning of the modernized nation. This default was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, teaching was respected as an imperial job with permanent hospitable treatment worthy of men.

Espacio, Tiempo y Educación, v. 5, n. 2, Julio-Diciembre / July-December 2018, pp. 35-54. 49 e-ISSN: 1698-7802 Aki Sakuma

On the other hand, teachers were put under the strong control of the government as obedient servants of the Emperor as father. In addition, in this imperial system based on Confucian patriarchy, female teachers were to be subordinate to men, to be enclosed within elementary schools, and excluded from important posts. This is the historical origin of the current gender distribution of teachers shown in Graph 1.

Graph 1.

4.2.3. Professionalization or not?

Confusingly, however, Mori was not seeking ways to make teachers’ social status as high as that of medical doctors or lawyers. Mori separated schools for teaching preparation from the academic higher education system in which those professionals were trained. He did not require teachers at elementary or secondary level to have any college level academic knowledge. In this sense, he did not intend to professionalize teaching. In the United States, Horace Mann and other Whig educational leaders considered teaching to be a special profession that was granted by God, and for which special preparatory education was required. Since then, the actual condition of teaching has been regarded as problematic, and throughout the 19th century educational leaders investigated the «professionalization» of teaching in terms of its quality, treatment, and social status.

5. Conclusion

In previous research in Japan, the teaching as profession theory has for a long time been clearly distinguished from teaching as a holy calling. These two ideas have been understood to be conflicting, depending on whether the object for which one should sacrifice oneself and to which one should devote oneself is the nation or its children.

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However, Mori’s original concept of teaching included both the teaching as profession theory and teaching as holy calling theory, owing to its positioning of children as the bearers of the nation in the next generation. Moreover, historically, it formed views whereby the originally identical ideas of teaching differed. This was because the US concept of teaching that Mori imported to Japan was a holistic one, in which five elements were interwoven based on Protestant ideology. In both countries, both the holy calling and profession theories included nationalism, which aimed at education for the nation. However, while the sacredness of the republican polity was admired based on the ideas of individualism and liberty in the US, the sacredness of the imperial polity was admired by the apotheosis of the Emperor, the unbroken imperial line for ages eternal. This transnational analysis of the history of teaching suggests that the professionalization of teaching does not always connote democracy or the human rights of children/teachers. For example, the Japanese Society for the Study on Teacher Education cautions that the current professionalization of teaching in Japan has been advanced by the Ministry of Education, and the essence of their policy could be interpreted as the cultivation of teachers who will devote themselves submissively to the nation (Japanese Society for the Study on Teacher Education ed., 2017). More historical/transnational studies are required for the future of the professionalization of teaching.

6. Acknowledgments

This study is one part of the research results for which the author received assistance by JSP Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research JP25381043 and JSP Grant- in-Aid for Scientific Research JP16H02065.

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